


Truth of an 'Artist' - One-Shot

by DoodlesAndDrabbles



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoodlesAndDrabbles/pseuds/DoodlesAndDrabbles
Summary: A quick one-shot as a test on writing abilities!A secret about the 'artist' comes to light when Nightmare invited Ink to paint with him.
Relationships: Ink / Nightmare, Nightmare / Ink
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43





	Truth of an 'Artist' - One-Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Like mentioned in the summary, this short one-off story was me attempting to write after years of not writing! XD
> 
> I had posted this in a Discord server, and since they liked it - I thought it would be a good first story to post to here!  
> (Note: While I did mention M/M in the tags due to the last part hinted, it really doesn't have much of that.)
> 
> Credits are at the end.

" _HEY!_ This is a lot harder than it looks and I don't think you realize that!" 

"Yeah, and you are telling that to the one who just finished this..." The other being carefully picked up the canvas he was working on with two of his tentacles, while gesturing to his newly made masterpiece.

Ink could feel the rush of black liquid hit his throat as he was shocked to see what Nightmare did in a few mere hours. A careful painting of a detailed garden with a single, fully blossomed tree placed dead center, branches reaching to the ends of the canvas. Getting closer, he could see each meticulous brush stroke was placed with meaning, creating grooves of the bark... fullness of the leaves... even down to every delicate blade of grass and flower hugging the trunk and a few of the roots extending from the soil's grasp.

"I... uh... what!?! You didn't tell me you're an artist - _PMMMFF_!" A quick cover of his mouth still didn't stop the ink rushing from his maw and dripping to the floor. 

"Of course," Nightmare said between holding his laughter in, "It was a nice hobby to do when you had all the free time in the world. Now..." After carefully placing his piece back on the stand, he strolled over to the canvas Ink was working on, "Let's take a look at the artis..."

"No no no WAIT! It's not done!!!"

".... Not done? It doesn't look like you even started."

"Uhhhh... I was trying to get the proper paint colors for the flowers..." 

Nightmare raised an eyebrow to the palette sat off to the side... "Then you did a horrible job finding the color.... yellow. Ink - even **I** know that's a primary color for painting. How did you mess tha... wait..."

The flood of ink rushed back onto the ground and Ink slipped and slid on the goopy mess over to Nightmare, "Nonononono don't lift that...."

"-Pfff"

"...up..."

Nightmare couldn't help but burst into full laughter on the spot. "Ink... _You_... what in the worlds are these?"

He held up one of the many scrapped pieces of paper with crude drawings of what seemed to be bugs on sticks... or ...flags that were set on fire... maybe they were mindless scribbles... Either way - this was the reason why he barely looked at his canvas?

"..... those? I don't know...."

"Ink... come on... you can't be... _embarrassed about this_?"

"About what? You know I can't even feel that properly, right?"

"Yeah... but are these... flowers?"

The other fidgeted with his scarf before uttering in the softest tone Nightmare had ever heard from him, "...........ye..."

"I'm sorry," A smug grin slowly appeared on Nightmare's face, "Did you say... yes?"

Ink, looking away, shook his head up and down fiercely.

"No.... No way... Ink. The protector of the universes. The self proclaimed artist... can't even draw a simple flower?"

A few moments of silence spread between the two, before a clearly forced laugh came from Ink. 

"PFF ah yeah. Stupid isn't it? An artist who can't even art - what kind of crazy concept is that huh?" 

The laughter kept going and going... the tone grinding into Nightmare's head. Geez - since Ink loved to hop through his 'goop' unannounced, he thought doing something that the 'artist' enjoyed would be a good ice-breaker for the constant chaos he brought... but no. Ink was a fraud... at least with that 'artist' title. But... that doesn't mean he had to keep it as a fake...

"...Ink?"

"Hm?" The laughter halted in moments, Ink blankly staring back at the supposed 'King of Darkness'. 

"...do you... want... lessons?"

That stopped whatever track of mind Ink seemed to have, "Le...lessons?"

"Yes. Art lessons. You seem to hop over here often enough..."

"Well yeah! It's fun to see what the 'bad guys' are doing!"

"...of course... But just think about it okay?" Nightmare walked passed Ink, placing a paint brush back in his hands.

Lights flickering out and on from his eyes, he turned from looking at the lone brush in his hands over to Nightmare, "... really? You... know I would be going through lesson one for a whole month, right?"

Nightmare gave a small shrug to Ink's comment, "While it might not seem like it, I can be patient." I have to be with the goons I keep around, Nightmare added to himself, "I'll go through the basics as many times as you need to."

The other seemed to process that for a moment, scribbling down a few notes onto his scarf before speaking up. 

"... thanks. I'll... consider the offer!" Ink grinned wide before closing the gap between himself and Nightmare. 

" _Uh... um... good_. Yeah, good to consider it." Nightmare...stumbled? He stumbled on his words... that rarely happens, "It ...it would be nice to try to do art a **GAAAAA**!"

Nightmare screamed as Ink already had a hand and foot within his goopy stomach, "Sorry Nighty-Night, duty calls! Gonna use you as a portal so hold still!" 

A small hand waving back was the last thing Nightmare saw of Ink as he slipped into the portal on his body. Gods - he will never like the feeling of that. Ever. 

Still, the idea of someone to train his long hidden skill to... heh - he's oddly looking forward to teaching someone again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ink created by Myebi / Comyet (Tumblr, Instagram)  
> Nightmare created by Joku-Blog (Tumblr)
> 
> Starter sentence was found via Google Search (unfortunately I don't know exactly which starter prompt I found it from... -_-)


End file.
